The present invention relates to a cylinder head and especially to a cylinder head for a racing or high performance internal combustion engines and to a cylinder head modification. An elongated cylinder head insert is mounted into a slot in the cylinder head between a pair of combustion chambers.
An internal combustion engine normally has an engine block with one or more cylinder bores therein for the pistons to ride therein. The cylinder head forms the closed combustion chamber by attaching over the cylinder bores. In operation, a load is repeatedly applied to the engine to generate power and high performance in racing engines. The combustion face of the cylinder head is exposed to high temperatures resulting from the combustion of fuel within the combustion chamber to produce power. The high temperature in performance engines can result in high temperature deformations between the cylinder head combustion chambers in the cylinder head. This in turn can result in thermally induced stresses of a large magnitude which can shorten the life of the cylinder head and result in the engine having to be overhauled. As a result of this thermally applied stress, cracks frequently form on the cylinder head combustion face. These cracks can extend across the narrow bridges between the combustion chambers but may also extend in other directions resulting in the engine having to be overhauled and rebuilt on a more frequent basis.
The present invention is directed towards a method of modifying an existing internal combustion engine cylinder head to reduce high temperature deformations in racing or high performance engines and thus prolong the life of the cylinder head in the modified engine.